Life In Lockdown - Youthful Ephemera

One of the advantages to being locked down in the house you grew up in is that is that there is a huge collection of… well, just stuff, knocking about in the upper reaches of the house. I went… I want to say “loft diving” but can you dive up? I like the sound of it so I’m going to go with it (loft soaring may feel like the right direction but it doesn’t really convey the slightly mucky nature of grubbing around in the loft).

I didn’t find what I was looking for naturally as we all know that this isn’t how venturing into the loft / cellar / that-cupboard-that-you-shove-all-of-your-stuff-into-to-the-point-where-it-might-explode-while-doing-your-best-to-ignore-it goes. I did however find some long forgotten items from the dim and distant past. Am I going to tell you about them? Well, this is clearly the whole point of this post, isn’t it? Pretty anticlimactic if i just said “no”.

Early Home Silent Cinema
I feel like trying to explain this device to someone in the 21st century involves a lot of references that no longer make sense. “It was like a slide show but 3D. Slides? Well, they were like small photographs that you project up onto a screen so that the whole family could see them. No, we didn't have screen sharing. They were physical items. Yeah. not on a phone.”

Anyway, this was a pair of binoculars that only let you see the little wheel of photos that you put into it but it did give them a pretty good 3D effect. We had such classics as The Muppet Show, Doctor Who, Transformers, Ulysses 31, Doctor Snuggles, E.T., The Munch Bunch and, naturally, the Robin Williams version of Popeye (no home should be without it). There’s a real grainy analogue charm to it and the clunk of the arm being depressed and returned to its original position as the new image slides into view is very satisfying.

Badges? We Don’t Need No Stinking Badges
Except that we clearly did as we’ve got tons of them. What has been surprising about this find is the realisation of just how many trips we must have made to Wimpy as kids. I think of the lot, the most impressive badges are probably either “I eat best at BHS” or “I’ve seen the planes at Gatwick” (one bold claim, one starkly factual one) and the less said about the badge right at the top these days, the better…

Wannabe Doodler
I’d also kind of forgotten that, apart from copying other people’s comic book images to akke into murals, I actually did sketch actual people. Given the subjects on display here, this is clearly from the teenage years (Cindy Crawford, Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore and Helena Christensen’s eye and nose) given the preponderance for drawing attractive women. It has made me pick up the pencil again and, no, after a couple of decades of not really doodling, I won't be sharing the results.